How to download all videos from a youtube playlist or even all videos of a youtube channel?

Notice: I am writing this video because many medical students have contacted me on YouTube asking me for instructions on how to download some videos from my channel. Namely, anatomy videos by Dr. Ahmed M. Kamal. I responded to each person individually. However, because of being asked this question often, I decided to publish a post about the topic. “The straw that broke the camel’s back was this comment” by YouTube user “freehomeland”:

Apparently, this person is not asking for how to download my channel. However, downloading the channel is what he will certainly ask me to teach him after I tell him that the way he is planning to download the same videos is not only more lengthy, but most importantly, would cause him to download unnamed videos in a very rare format that can only be played (to my knowledge) using “Windows media player classic”. So, Mr. Homeland, download the videos from my channel. It would save you not only effort and time, but also, the “quality” of the videos you are going to download. Thank you.

Two years ago, it was the first time that I first needed to download multiple videos from a YouTube channel. There are a lot of programs that allows you to download individual videos like Real Player, Internet Download Manager… But I wanted a program that could download 20 or 30 videos automatically without the need of my opening each video, clicking download, choosing where to download the video, starting the download, etc.

I remember that I searched for hours without finding a program that could achieve this goal. “There is no such program!!!” I easily deduced. At some point, I found a Firefox add-on that could do the multiple downloads automatically. Only to ruin my happiness, many errors occurred and downloading each video individually turned out to be easier than using their add-on.

I remember that I surrendered, “It is impossible that such a program exists” I thought. No doubt, the number of YouTube visitors will decrease if every user could download all videos of a playlist or a channel and later on watch them offline. What do you think?

But to my amazement, up to this moment, I am still fascinated by a program I found; it is called “Free Youtube Download” by a company called “DVDVIDEOSOFT”. It proved that I was wrong; there exists a program!!!

Yes, this program does not only download whole YouTube playlists, but also, whole YouTube channels, Can you believe that? Add to this that the program is a freeware; in fact, all the programs of this company are freeware!!!

The features of Free YouTube Download:

Free YouTube Download is one of the most usable programs on the web to download YouTube videos, single videos as well as whole collections such as:
– complete playlists and show lists;
– users’ channels;
– all videos from personal playlists (History, Liked, Favourites, Watch later, etc.);
– artist’s playlists;
– videos from Movies Category;
– videos from Music Category;
– videos from YouTube charts;
– video responses.

As a thank-you for this great program and other great programs this company produces, I subscribed to their Facebook page. If you liked their program (I am pretty sure that you will), I suggest that you subscribe to their Facebook page as a small return for their great free programs. Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/dvdvideosoft.

I highly recommend this video. I have used this program since more than 1.5 years, and till now, I haven’t found any thing negative about it. Not a single error did I face when I used this program to download hundreds of videos from YouTube.

Anatomy videos by Dr. Ahmed M. Kamal: How to download my whole channel on watch the videos offline? For those of you not interested in “anatomy”, you can read this tutorial just an example.

To download YouTube videos and watch them offline, follow the following steps. I am sure that watching these videos offline would be easier for most students taking into considerations that the extent of internet use is still low in most arab countries (isn’t it?) not to mention the absence of high speed connections.

Downloading the videos certainly will decrease the number of views of the videos on my channel. This is to clarify more the fact that I did not upload these videos for fame or financial gain. This is in particular to someone who once contacted me alluding that I might be “profiting” form publishing these videos!!!

What about the permission of Dr. Ahmed M. Kamal? My explanation is still the same; it is the one I wrote more than two years ago and is placed in the “Description” of each 400+ anatomy videos I published.

The program will take a short time analyzing the channel; notice the word “Checking”. You can choose the “Quality” of the videos to be downloaded. The program can download the videos in multiple formats; the higher the definition, the larger the size of the downloaded video, and subsequently, the longer the time for the downloads to finish!

The number of videos will appear.

You can specify which videos to or not to download by clicking on the “Playlist” blue link.

6. Click the button to start downloading and wait until all videos are finished downloading. All done automatically without the need of any further interference on your behalf.

^ lol, Moa bite 😀 reminds me of many times i have to sort through spams 😀
Anyway, thanks a ton for posting this 🙂 It’s a great deal of help when you have to dodwnload a whole channel/playlist of study material 🙂

Thank you for your recommendation. I am not sure if you have a “conflict of interest” by being a representative of the other program’s company.

I have never had any problem with DVDVideoSoft’s YouTube download program. It might be because I used it to download ~200 hundred videos.

Your feedback is more than welcome and here I am publishing it in my blog. Iopened the link that you provided and the program’s interferace looks great. Is this program great at performance as well? I will try it in the future.

I think that there is a “great” problem with your suggested problem. It doesn’t address the main issue of why I suggested DVDVideoSoft’s program: Automatic download of whole YouTube channels or playlists. If I understood correctly what is written in the link you provided, then your program only supports “individual video download” only:

4K Video Downloader allows to download video from YouTube in high-quality and as fast as your computer and connection.

Thank you for your recommendation. I am not sure if you have a “conflict of interest” by being a representative of the other program’s company.

I have never had any problem with DVDVideoSoft’s YouTube download program. It might be because I used it to download ~200 hundred videos only.

Your feedback is more than welcome and here I am publishing it in my blog. I opened the link that you provided. Your suggested program’s interface looks great. Is this program great at performance as well? I will try it in the future.

I am not sure what do you mean. But if you are in a University, for example, then you can copy the Proxy settings to the program. Just look in the settings of the program for “Proxy” and manually add them.

Re: comments by Mr. Oller
I see that he has not replied with answers to your questions, so I’ll respond to his comment in case others have the same complaint.

The inclusion of malware depends upon what site you download the software from. You provided the actual web site of the company that developed the software and I would suggest that everyone use that link since it’s doubtful that you will get any malware from that location.

If you just do a search on the name of the software and end up with a list of sites where you can download the program, chances are you’re going to end up with malware UNLESS you choose the “Advanced” method of installation – don’t worry about the suggestion that only experienced users select the Advanced method, there is nothing difficult about it if you just go step by step.

For example: when I started using the internet (almost back in the dark ages), I would often turn to CNET for reliable, trustworthy solutions to any problems, including free software downloads. Then there was a long period when I did not use CNET, but when I returned there to download a program I was certainly surprised by all the complaints about malware. When I looked further into the situation, I realized that these people really did not have the right to complain about malware, they were just too lazy to read the descriptions of their downloads and take the necessary steps to avoid the malware.

If you choose to do a “Basic” type of installation, most steps will be automatic and they will not even ask you questions (like which directory do you want to install to, the directory is simply chosen by the installation program with no choice for you to make) and that includes not asking if you want malware to be installed – it will simply install the several additional programs that you didn’t know you’d be getting!

And, to be completely fair, not all of the extra programs can honestly be called malware. I believe one of the reasons people do call all the programs malware even though they are not trying to damage your computer in any way at all, is because they can be VERY difficult to remove from your computer and that is frustrating. If you find yourself needing to remove programs you don’t want and find it very difficult, get online and do a search similar to: “How do I remove the program @#$@#%@$ from my computer? It may take a few tries even then, but you will find an answer if you have patience and have now learned to follow instructions carefully, step by step.

If you want to download software from some place other than the creators’ web site, you can avoid extra programs that you don’t want by choosing to use the “Advanced” method of installation and carefully read each and every page completely! Some of the wording on the offers for the extra programs can be tricky and confusing, so be patient and figure out what’s happening before you just get short of patience and click the “Next” button. I have even encountered pages where you have to look for ways to stop the installation of these programs not only at the top or center of the page, but again near the bottom. If you don’t mark both areas correctly, the installation program will choose to install the surprise program, but it’s your fault by not reading everything – carefully. Twice if you have to be certain that you’ve responded correctly. One page might be offering to install a program to speed up your computer and if you don’t want that program, you will have to remove the checks from the boxes. Then the next page will be offering to install a “new & improved, better than ever” text program and you might have to put checks in boxes to stop the inclusion of that program! Look all is fair and it is childish to whine later if you don’t choose to play these silly games like an adult – people want you to be forced to try their software, they believe that if they could only get people to try it, it will become popular (personally, I don’t think that’s true because I know that once a company or brand has tricked me, I will not use anything from that company – so now you know the level I’m at as far as maturity – ha ha!). Just work your way past those few pages that are trying to download extra software and read the descriptions on each and every page to be certain what you are approving, then you’ll be home free.

It didn’t take me very long to learn to go and find that homepage for the creator of any software that I wanted to try. I don’t like what happens at these other sites, but I also can’t blame them for doing anything horrible when they give you a way around it and they notify you up front.

Don’t bad mouth a company for including malware with their software when that’s honestly not the case. Do your part and protect your computer through acceptable software and your attention to matters.

Moa’bite, thank you very much for providing the direct link to the home page for Free YouTube Download and for your positive descriptions of this software. I really appreciate your very clear and complete descriptions of how to use the software to download either channels or playlists from YouTube.

And, thank you for allowing me to get on my soapbox here – I hope that at least a few people will be willing to learn from both of us! Okay, climbing off soapbox now – be blessed!

Oh, wow! Now my cheeks are red! And, all because I didn’t check everything out before writing my first comment.

Here’s my corrections: The website that is listed here to download the software is not the creators’ website although it’s just as good of a site than any other place you can download because the creators do not have a download link directly under their control. If you click the download button on the creators’ website, it takes you to CNET Download.

We still have no idea just what Mr. Oller is referring to as malware, but indeed, it seems at every website that I checked out for downloading Free YouTube Download software there were additional programs that want to be installed along with the desired software. I do commend whomever is responsible for the very clear and easy to understand warnings that are printed at each download location. They let you know that other software is indeed bundled with the Downloader, but you have options to refuse the other software. The options for refusing the other software were “no nonsense, no trickery, and simple to use” – I don’t remember having to check more than one box on any page offering the additional software and then it gave a confirmation message that the extra software would not be installed and my choosing to not have it installed would not change any of the other defaults I’d selected.

It was the best packaged software at these sites that I’ve ever seen. If anyone ends up with the additional software on their machine, it’s not from lack of trying by the folks providing the download. You’d have to be blind or just refusing to read any instructions if you end up with extra software. Now, when I say it’s the best packaged software, I should clarify that it’s been a long time since I’ve downloaded anything except from a creators’ website, so perhaps all the software downloads at such sites as CNET and DVDVideoSoft (the site recommended in this blog) are now so well packaged complete with clear and accurate warnings about bundled software. If you just breeze past such explanations because you perhaps don’t understand what bundled software or appropriate options might mean – it’s still your responsibility to educate yourself and it only takes a little time on your behalf for you to learn any terms you don’t understand.

I apologize for any confusion that might have come from my first comment, but otherwise the information is accurate and I’m hoping that it’s helpful.